Lost Gems
by DarkColdSummer
Summary: Clarisse and her twin sister, Crystal's, story on how they got to Camp./Written for Querencia's Quarter Quell/Rated T for character death and slight blood and gore


For Querencia's Quarter Quell Round 3

* * *

Prompts:

[Greek Goddess] Artemis  
[Greek God] Ares  
[Roman Goddess] Minerva  
[Roman God] Mercury  
[Extra Greek God] Apollo

* * *

"Run!" The younger of the duo screamed, her light brown hair whipping furiously around her as she darted off, her older twin at her heels.

Clarisse caught up quickly, grabbed her younger twin's hand and pulled her along, being the faster of the duo. "Shush, Crystal."

"I'm trying to…" Crystal murmured, weaving in and out of the trees of the forest.

"Stop running you cupcakes! I don't want to hurt you, and you'll get hurt in the forest instead! Who knows what monsters are in there?!" The goat-man, as the twins had taken to calling their PE coach once he sprouted goat legs out of nowhere, yelled after them.

"We'll believe you when you show us!" Crystal screamed back.

"I did!" Goat-man yelled back, and they picked up their speed, hearing the trampling… hoof-steps nearing behind them.

Clarisse punched her younger sister lightly on the shoulder and gave her a mock scathing glare, not wanting their crazy coach to find them. "We run home to mom," Clarisse hissed.

Crystal nodded, not trusting herself to say anything without provoking her older sister.

* * *

The door to their little apartment was slammed open then locked shut.

"Mom!" Crystal hollered loudly, cupping her hands around her mouth. "We're home!"

Silence.

"Mom?" Clarisse half-asked half-shouted, tiptoeing to her mother's room and cracking open the door like a thief after not receiving a reply of any sort. "Mom!"

Crystal poked her head into the room not long after, having heard her older sister's shout of surprise and watched the latter stumble quickly over herself into the room. Now, one thing about Clarisse. She did not stumble, let alone stumble over herself! Something was definitely wrong.

Crystal stepped in, shock ridding her of any words as she took in the scene around her.

Their mother was lying on the ground, face up, Clarisse on her knees sobbing somewhere in between the door and the dead body. Blood had been sprayed across the room. A woman with flaming hair, red eyes, fangs, _a shiny bronze leg and a donkey leg_ (Seriously though? What was that thing?) smiled cruelly up at the twins.

"We'll meet again," the crazy lady hissed, before disappearing into a shower of flames, which caused Clarisse to jump up and jump backwards, shouting in a mix of horror and fear.

"Mom!" Crystal screamed, collapsing and sobbing on her mother's corpse, Clarisse attempting to comfort her but failing terribly due to her own emotional instability.

"Coach Hedge was right…" Crystal murmured shakily. "He wasn't crazy, was he Clair?"

Clarisse shook her head slowly. "No, he was right… That was a monster… and maybe, just maybe, he could help us."

"So we're really children of the Greek gods?" Crystal asked slowly for confirmation.

"Yes you are," a familiar gruff voice sounded.

The two twins snapped their heads up and looked for the source of the sound. Unsurprisingly, it was their PE coach, Coach Gleeson Hedge. Surprisingly, he wasn't exactly there. His figure shimmered through a rainbow as he stared at them.

"You're at your home," he observed. "Any chance you could meet me outside school, as soon as possible, meaning now?"

Clarisse and Crystal exchanged uncertain looks, before staring back at the goat-man determinedly.

"See you in ten," Clarisse declared confidently, grabbing Crystal's hand and running off.

Coach Hedge watched them as they ran off, then looked at the woman lying on the ground, dead, and the rest of the surroundings.

"Stupid Empousai," he grumbled irritably as he swiped through the Iris Message. "Ruining the kids' lives. They're only ten for gods' sake!"

* * *

Clarisse hopped from foot to foot uncertainly, fingering the spear that Coach Hedge had passed to her.

"This is from your father," he had said.

Now as she looked at it and the sparks fizzling from the spear's sharp tip, she couldn't help but wonder if this was her father's version of an apology for leaving the twins and their mother behind for ten years.

Next to her, Crystal looked at the gang of girls, then at the silver bow and quiver of arrows their leader had given her.

"Are you sure?" She asked uncertainly, raising the bow.

"Are thou questioning milady's instincts?" The second in-charge countered. "Milady knows what she's doing."

"Calm Zoë," the leader warned, raising her hand. Zoë backed down reluctantly. "The girl has every right to be wary. She won't join the Hunt, that's for sure, but she is worthy."

Crystal looked at her, puzzled. "Well, in that case, the least I could do is say thank you to you… Your name, ma'am?"

The goddess looked on in amusement. "Artemis, Lady Artemis."

* * *

"We're almost there, come on…" Coach Hedge murmured, ushering the twins up the hill as loud noises could be heard from behind them. "Gods damn! Not now!"

It didn't take long for them to be overrun, surrounded by monsters. More specifically, surrounded by five Empousai and two hellhounds.

"You!" Crystal growled, and would have lunged for the head Empousa if both Coach and Clarisse hadn't held her back. "You stupid little monster!"

The head Empousa laughed. "Yes! Me! Remember me? I killed your mother!"

Then her eyes narrowed. "And now, we'll kill you too."

And the other Empousai and hellhounds attacked.

* * *

The area had turned into a flurry of arrows, electricity, yells, claws, fangs and baseball bats. No blood had been spilled yet. At least, until-

"AH!"

Clarisse snapped around, then watched in horror as a hellhound ripped her sister apart. "Crystal!"

Crystal turned slightly towards Clarisse's direction, then collapsed onto the ground, her eyes glassy and unseeing.

"NO!" Clarisse yelled in horror, then turned towards the monsters that killed her sister. "Do you know who I am?"

Her body started glowing a bright fiery flickering red. "I am the daughter of Ares!"

She didn't know what she was saying, but it sounded right. "And you… You monsters… You just killed my twin sister!"

Her hands gripped her spear tightly as she prepared herself to attack. "I'm warning you, mercy won't be an option for you lot."

Then she attacked, driving her spear through four Empousai within three seconds. They burst into a shower of golden dust. Eyes filled with fury, Clarisse leapt onto a hellhound and drove her spear through its heart at the same time Coach Hedge battered the other hellhound to death. Another lunge and she had the head Empousa pinned beneath her ten year old body.

"Mercy! Please!" The Empousa begged.

Clarisse's grin was cruel as she glowed an eery red, her spear raised high above her head. "I did warn you."

Then she stabbed down her spear, hard.

* * *

Clarisse fidgeted slightly in front of the water fountain, flipping the drachma in between her fingers uncertainly. After some time of hesitation, she gave in, taking a deep breath and throwing the drachma into the rainbow.

"Oh Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering. Show me Crystal La Rue," Clarisse all but whispered.

The image in the rainbow shimmered for a while, then the drachma was thrown back out.

"I'm sorry, the recipient of the message cannot be reached…" A voice intoned through the message.

Clarisse choked back a sob.

* * *

"Hail Clarisse La Rue, Daughter of Ares, God of War and Violence, Battlelust and Rage."

As the campers, satyrs (as she had learnt were what the goat-men were called) and centaur knelt down around her, Clarisse couldn't help but feel hollow deep inside.

Fair enough, she'd just lost her twin sister six hours ago anyway. Why would she be happy in the first place? This sad feeling she had, that would be fair and reasonable.

So why did it feel like she'd just lost her world then?

She did, she lost her little twin sister, she lost her only gem, her only light in the dark cruel world.

She was nothing without Crystal, her little lost gem, and she knew that.

(And in future, if anyone dared ask about the Hunter-like bow and arrow set that Clarisse kept but never used… Let's just say it wasn't pretty.)

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 **Word Count: 1351 words**

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 _(A/N: Um… Yeah. My version of Clarisse's backstory. I always wondered if something like this happened, making her harden her core to everyone. As always, prompts are Artemis, Ares, Minerva, Mercury and Apollo. Anything related to them. So twins for the twin Olympians (or archery and Hunters of Artemis for Apollo and Artemis respectively if that isn't allowed), children of Ares (or heavy fighting or even just the Blessing of Ares) for Ares, spears for Minerva, and communication via Iris Message for Mercury!_

 _Peace,  
Summer-Moon)_


End file.
